But standing, as we are to day, with bowed heads and stricken hearts, beside the grave which has just closed upon the mortal remains of our venerable departed brother, though we would not forget what he had done for us, we prefer to think of what, by the grace of God, he was, than of what by God's good Providence he was permitted to accomplish. We delight to cherish the memory of his penitent and childlike faith in Christ—the sinner's only Saviour and hope—and of those graces of the Holy Spirit which gave so much beauty and sweetness to his character, and which were more and more conspicuous in his declining years.
Though Dr. Ryerson was a man of positive views and devotedly attached to his own Church, he was distinguished for his comprehensive charity, and his genuine appreciation of great and good men from whom he differed widely in opinion. His goodness no less than his greatness will serve to keep his memory fresh among us, and the recollections of his virtue is to us a powerful incentive to a fuller consecration to the service of God.
The General Conference at its Session of 1882, passed the following resolution:—
Whereas it has pleased Almighty God, in His divine wisdom, to call from a life of faithful service in the Church of Christ on earth to his everlasting reward in heaven our reverend and honoured father in the Gospel, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D.D., LL.D., the first President of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada, this General Conference desires to place upon record its deep feelings of gratitude to God for His gift to the Methodist Church and to the people of this land for so many years of a man so richly endowed with native gifts and so largely adorned with the Christian graces and its profound sense of the great loss the Church and country have sustained in his death. As the devoted Christian missionary and pastor; as the faithful defender of the rights and liberties of the people of this land against ecclesiastical assumptions and civil disabilities; as the Editor for many years of the Christian Guardian, the official organ of our Church and the first religious journal in Canada; as the President of the University of Victoria College, the oldest institution of higher learning of Canadian Methodism; as the trusted representative of his Church in the religious councils of Methodism in the old world and the new; as the Superintendent for over thirty years of the education of his native Province—a system which he almost created, and which he developed to a state of proficiency unsurpassed by that of any country in the world; as the wise counsellor in the union movement which led to the organization of the Methodist Church of Canada; and as the President-Administrator of its highest office during the first quadrennium of its history, Dr. Ryerson has an imperishable claim upon the love and gratitude especially of his own church, and also of the entire community. We magnify the grace of God as manifested in him; we revere his memory as that of a true patriot and devoted Christian; we rejoice in his labours for the glory of God and the welfare of man; and we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, and pray that the consolations of God may more and more abound in their souls to the end.
FOOTNOTES:
[150] This interment took place in May. The ceremony was a private one, attended only by immediate relatives and intimate personal friends. Among the former were the venerable doctor's aged eldest brother, Rev. George Ryerson (91 years old) and Mrs. George Ryerson; the bereaved widow, Mrs. Ryerson, Mr. Charles E. Ryerson, his two sons, and Mrs. George Duggan. Among the latter were the Rev. Dr. Potts, Mrs. Potts, Dr. Hodgins, and Mr. H. M. Wilkinson (son of Rev. H. Wilkinson), of the Education Department, and two or three others. After lowering the coffin into the grave, the Rev. Dr. Potts read a portion of the burial service, committing the body to the earth in hope of a joyful resurrection at the last day.
THE END.